The Panasonic, NBC, MySpace, collaboration is an exciting one, with Panasonic and NBC teaming up for the 2012 Olympics and showing support for women’s soccer, and Panasonic and MySpace teaming up to bring MySpace content to the television. But the elephant in the room question was “What’s the future of MySpace.” MySpace was Facebook before Facebook, and this, to this blogger, looks like an effort by both parties to find lightening in a bottle again.
That’s what I was trying to get at in what came out as a somewhat awkward interview, because MySpace CEO Chris Vanderhook was trying to drive home the message that there is a MySpace / Panasonic partnership, and me trying to focus squarely on the future of MySpace.
But the question remains: Can MySpace reach Facebook levels of popularity, drawing somewhere near 800 million users? Vanderhook skipped a direct answer, but got close, opting to say “I’m a big believer in the brand (of MySpace). My brother and I Tim really coveted this brand. We wanted to by MySpace. So, absolutely. We’re fully confident and aware of the ubiquity of MySpace, but we’re focused on putting out a great user experience, and a great product.
Stay tuned.